Howard Simon's Blog

Gailey: "I thought we'd turned the corner"

Chan Gailey’s record as Bills Head Coach dropped to 15-31 after Sunday’s 50-17 thrashing at the hands of the Seattle Seahawks and it increased the intensity of the heat on his seat.

During his weekly segment on WGR on Monday, Gailey addressed a number of topics including whether or not he thought his team gave up during the game. “I don’t question our effort at all. I think the effort was there. I never question our guys character or effort. I question our execution but I don’t question our effort. When you play bad, it looks like you aren’t playing hard.”

If the effort is still there according to the Head Coach, is it possible the players have stopped listening to him? Gailey said he doesn’t feel that is the case. “I’ve been fortunate in my career that wherever we went to turn something around or to keep it going, we’ve always been able to do that. This is new territory for me too, going this long without winning. This is hard for me too. I’m not used to it. No, I don’t think the message is falling on deaf ears and I think they understand what we are trying to get done, we’re just not getting it done.”

Gailey, who is under contract beyond the 2012 season, was asked if the pressure on him grows after each loss. “You coach the best you can coach every day. You can’t worry about that stuff. If you worry about that then you take your mind away from the task at hand.”

Both Gailey and General Manager Buddy Nix have maintained they are making progress despite the record. Gailey was asked if a sound defeat like Sunday’s is a major setback for them. “ It hurts me because to be honest with you, I didn’t see anything like that ever happening to us again. I thought we turned the corner on that.”

Among the many problems for the Bills, as they fell to 1-4 in games played in Toronto during the 5 year series, the screen game was ineffective. C.J. Spiller had 3 catches for minus 2 yards with a long of 6. Gailey told WGR teams have become wise to the screen passes and are taking them away. “They’re starting to play it. Two weeks ago(St. Louis) they assigned a defensive lineman to play it and this past week(Seattle) they kept linebackers hanging around a bit. Its getting harder and harder because its been so successful and they know we’re trying to get it to our backs.”